Back in 1996 I was cornered by a horde of tackle dealers, who politely informed me that the rod I was using at the time was………  Well it was…………….. I needed a new one. And the ones they put in my hands that day beside a dam near Somerset East were sublime. So on my return home to KZN I visited one of them, and he very generously gave me three fly-rods to try. I tested them on a prime still-water, and settled very quickly on this one: